Bronx flower store crash: Driver charged

A driver has been charged after a two-car accident left at least five people injured, one critically, Sunday morning in the Parkchester section of the Bronx.

The crash happened shortly after 9 a.m. when two vehicles collided at White Plains Road at the Cross Bronx Expressway.

The driver, 38 year old Jermaine Calderon from the Bronx, is in custody and charged with leaving the scene of an accident and aggravated unlicensed operation.

Witnesses say the car was traveling at a high rate of speed, and crashed into a minivan parked in front of a flower store on White Plains Road.

Dennis Sales says he heard metal crushing and glass shattering seconds after three men left Miguel's Flower Shack after buying gifts for Mother's Day.

The trio got into a minivan at the intersection of White Plains Road and the service road to the Cross Bronx. That is when witnesses say the driver of the Honda exited the expressway and slammed into the minivan, which then rear-ended a Budget rental truck.

Sales' sister, was sitting in the truck but wasn't hurt. The driver in the Honda knew he was in trouble.

Sales said he smelled like alcohol and was heavily bleeding from his head and arm, but still managed to upside-down crawl out of the passenger's side window and take off running.

"It seems like he's done it before. By the time I went to look, he was already down at the corner trying to hail a cab," said Sales.

Calderon was one block away on Westchester Avenue, but Sales and 5 others were not giving up. Sales said he ran after the bad guy while he was on the phone with 911.

The suspect then ran one more block to Leland where Dennis and the others surrounded him until police arrived. The shop owner who saw it all was amazed at what the men did.

"They did a pretty thing, very good job," said Kawsaiez Zaman, "that guy is very nice."